Sun

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SUN.—The first mention of the sun in the Bible is in Gen_1:16, as ‘the greater light to rule the day.’ It was looked upon as the greatest and most important of the heavenly bodies, and motion was attributed to it, as is still done in ordinary parlance. We read of the going down of the sun, and of its rising; of the increasing force of its heat as the day went on (Exo_16:21), of its influence in the production of the crops of the ground (‘the precious things of the fruits of the sun,’ Deu_33:14). The sun ‘goeth forth in his might’ (Jdg_5:31). The situation of a place is spoken of as ‘toward the sunrising,’ i.e. to the east (e.g. Num_34:15). Things that were notorious and done openly were said to be ‘before or in the sight of the sun.’ But while the sun is strong, the power of God is greater still. This is expressed in Job’s assertion (Job_9:7) that God ‘commandeth the sun and it riseth not.’ The power of the sun affects the complexion (‘I go blackened, but not by the sun,’ Job_30:28 RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ; cf. Son_1:6), and even causes death. A case of death by sunstroke occurs in 2Ki_4:18-19, and this power is alluded to in Psa_121:6 ‘The sun shall not smite thee by day.’ The light of the sun is cheering: ‘a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun’ (Ecc_11:7). Contrivances for measuring the length of the day by the shadow cast by the sun were invented: we have some kind of dial, of which steps formed a part, indicated in 2Ki_20:9; 2Ki_20:11, Isa_38:8. Though there is no actual mention of an eclipse in the Bible, part of the language used in describing the terrors of the day of the Lord both in OT and NT is derived from such an event: ‘the sun shall be turned into darkness’ (Joe_2:31), ‘the sun became black as sackcloth of hair’ (Rev_6:12). On the other hand, the brilliance and glory of the future life is portrayed by comparison with the sun. ‘Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun’ (Mat_13:43); ‘The light of the sun shall be sevenfold’ (Isa_30:26); and even the sun will not be required, for, as in Psa_84:11 ‘the Lord God is a sun,’ so in Rev_21:23 (cf. Rev_22:5) ‘the city hath no need of the sun … for the glory of God did lighten it.’ The wonders of the day of Joshua’s victory over the Amorites, when at his command the sun and moon are said to have stood still (Jos_10:12-14), were long remembered by the Israelites (Hab_3:11, Sir_46:4).
The power and influence of the sun over the natural world would soon lead to its being personified and worshipped, inasmuch as what was done upon earth was done ‘under the sun.’ In one of Joseph’s dreams there is a personification of the sun (Gen_37:9). In the Book of Deuteronomy (Deu_4:19) there is a caution against sun-worship, and the punishment of death by stoning is assigned to the convicted worshipper of the sun (Deu_17:3), whilst in Job (Job_31:26) there is an allusion to a superstitious salutation of the sun by the kissing of the hand. Sun-pillars, or obelisks used in the worship of the sun, are mentioned frequently in the OT, e.g. Exo_23:24, Lev_26:30, 2Ch_14:3, Isa_17:8, Eze_6:4; and in Phœnicia, a solar Baal, Baal-Hammon, was worshipped. Sun-worship itself was, in the later days of the kingdom of Judah at any rate, one of the permitted forms of worship in Jerusalem. Sun-images are mentioned in 2 Ch. (2Ch_14:5) as existing in all the cities of Judah as early as the reign of Asa. In Josiah’s reformation those who burnt incense to the sun were put down (2Ki_23:5), while the chariots of the sun were burned with fire (after being hewn down according to 2Ch_34:4; 2Ch_34:7), and ‘the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun’ were taken away (2Ki_23:11). There was a great chariot of the sun at Sippar in Babylonia. We gather from Eze_8:16 that this sun-worship actually took place in the inner court at the door of the Temple, between the porch and the altar; the worshippers turned their backs upon the Temple itself, and worshipped the sun towards the east. Certain places where this worship appears to have been most popular took the name Beth-shemesh (wh. see), ‘house of the sun,’ from the fact.
We must not forget, in conclusion, that, in one Messianic passage (Mal_4:2), the coming deliverer is spoken of as ‘the sun of righteousness.’
H. A. Redpath.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


Gen_1:14 translated "let there be luminaries," literally, "light bearers". Genesis only tells what the sun, moon, and stars are in relation to the earth. When the mists were dispelled, and the seas confined within bounds, the heavenly bodies assumed their natural functions, marking days and nights, seasons and years, and God appoints the sun to rule the day and the moon the night. "Let them be for signs," as eclipses, portents of extraordinary events (Mat_2:2; Luk_21:25) and divine judgments (Joe_2:30; Jer_10:2; Mat_24:29), and indicating the four quarters of the heavens (Psa_50:1) and also the changes in the weather; "and for seasons, days, and years." The sun regulated the length of the Israelite year by the recurrence of Pentecost at a fixed agricultural season, namely, when the grain was ripe.
The person facing the rising sun faced the E.; so "before," "forward," meant the E.; "behind," "backward," meant the W.; "on the left hand" meant the N."; "on the right" the S. (Job_23:8-9). Shemesh, "sun," expresses the stupor produced on the beholder by his overwhelming brilliancy; chammah and cherec are poetical names implying his "heat". Sun worship was the earliest idolatry (Job_31:26-27); Ra was "the sun god in Egypt"; On was "the city of the sun worship" (Jer_43:13; Hebrew), Bethshemesh "house of the sun," Greek Heliopolis. Joshua's causing the sun to stand still phenomenally virtually proclaimed his God Jehovah to be Lord of the sun and all creation, in the face of pagandom. The valley of Ajalon is still called wady el Mikteleh, "the valley of slaughter." The Phoenician Baal; the Ammonite Moloch and Milcom; the Syrian Hadad; latterly the Persian Mithras (Zoroaster previously had reformed the worship).
The "sun images" were called in Hebrew chammanim (Lev_26:30; margin 2Ch_14:5; 2Ch_34:4), stone statues to "solar Baal" or Baal Haman in Carthaginian inscriptions. The temple at Baalbek was dedicated to the worship of the sun. Manasseh introduced direct sun worship (2Ki_21:3; 2Ki_21:5). Josiah destroyed by fire (the very element which was worshipped) the chariots, and removed the horses consecrated to the sun (2Ki_23:5; 2Ki_23:11-12). The housetop was the place of sun altars and incense burning (Zep_1:5).
Worship was directed to the rising sun (Eze_8:16-17); they used to hold a bunch of "tamarisk branches" (barsom) to their nose at daybreak, while singing hymns to the rising sun (Strabo, 1:15, section 733). The horses sacred to the sun, and used in processions to meet the rising sun, were kept at the entering in of the house of Jehovah in the portico (as Gesenius explains parwarim in 2Ki_23:11, not "suburbs") at the western side of the outer temple court. An insult to the only true God, in His own house! Spiritually, God's law is the sun (Psa_19:7). He is a Sun to cheer; and "the Sun of righteousness," from whom we receive all righteousness, by imputation for justification, and by impartation for sanctification (Mal_4:2; Rev_1:16).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


Sun. In the history of "greater light," of the creation, the sun is described as "greater light," in contradistinction to the moon, the "lesser light," in conjunction with which it was to serve "for signs and for seasons, and for days, and for years," while its special office was "to rule the day." Gen_1:14-16. The "signs" referred to were, probably, such extraordinary phenomena as eclipses, which were regarded as conveying premonitions of coming events. Jer_10:2; Mat_24:29; Luk_21:25.
The joint influence assigned to the sun and moon in deciding the "seasons," both for agricultural operations and for religious festivals, and also in regulating the length and subdivisions of the years "correctly describes the combination of the lunar and solar year, which prevailed at all events subsequent to the Mosaic period.
Sunrise and sunset are the only defined points of time in the absence of artificial contrivances for telling the hour of the day. Between these two points the Jews recognized three periods, namely, when the sun became hot, about 9 A.M., 1Sa_11:9; Neh_7:3, the double light, or noon, Gen_43:16; 2Sa_4:5, and "the cool of the day," shortly before sunset. Gen_3:8.
The sun also served to fix the quarters of the hemisphere, east, west, north and south, which were represented respectively by the rising sun, the setting sun, Isa_45:6; Psa_50:1, the dark quarter, Gen_13:14; Joe_2:20, and the brilliant quarter, Deu_33:23; Job_37:17; Eze_40:24, or otherwise, by their position relative to a person facing the rising sun ? before, behind, on the left hand, and on the right hand. Job_23:8-9.
The worship of the sun, as the most prominent and powerful agent in the kingdom of nature, was widely diffused throughout the countries adjacent to Palestine. The Arabians appear to have paid direct worship to it, without the intervention of any statue or symbol, Job_31:26-27, and this simple style of worship was probably familiar to the ancestors of the Jews in Chaldaea and Mesopotamia.
The Hebrews must have been well acquainted with the idolatrous worship of the sun during the captivity in Egypt, both from the contiguity of On, the chief seat of the worship of the sun, as implied in the name itself, (On being the equivalent of the Hebrew, Bethshemesh, "house of the sun"), Jer_43:13, and also from the connection between Joseph and Potipherah, ("he who belongs to Ela"), the priest of On, Gen_41:45.
After their removal to Canaan, the Hebrews came in contact with various forms of idolatry which originated in the worship of the sun; such as the Baal of the Phoenicians, the Molech or Milcom of the Ammonites, and the Hadad of the Syrians. The importance attached to the worship of the sun by the Jewish kings may be inferred from the fact that, the horses sacred to the sun were stalled within the precincts of the Temple. 2Ki_23:11.
In the metaphorical language of Scripture, the sun is emblematic of the law of God, Psa_19:7, of the cheering presence of God, Psa_84:11, of the person of the Saviour, Joh_1:9; Mal_4:2, and of the glory and purity of heavenly beings. Rev_1:16; Rev_10:1.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


The Bible recognizes that the sun exercises control over certain processes of life in the world, and it sees this as a sign that God created the world and continues to care for it (Gen_1:14-18; Deu_33:13-14; Mat_5:45). The sun is a symbol of permanency and endurance (Psa_72:5; Psa_72:17; Psa_89:36), but it is not eternal. It is something God has created, and therefore it must not become an object of worship (Deu_4:19; Psa_136:7-9; Eze_8:16-18; Rom_1:18-23). The sun was darkened at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, and will be darkened again at the time of his return to judge the world (Mat_27:45; Mar_13:24-27).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.


Psa_19:4 (c) By this illustration we see the gorgeous beauty and the sovereign power of CHRIST JESUS. As the sun is chief in nature, so CHRIST is chief in all humanity and in all human affairs.

Psa_84:11 (a) This is typical of GOD as the One who gives light and life, warmth and strength to His people, even as the sun gives to vegetation.

Psa_121:6 (b) This is a promise that the natural forces of earth will be restrained from injuring the children of GOD who walk in intimate trust with Him.

Jer_15:9 (b) We may understand from this type that the end of life and of opportunity had come before its time. Punishment came because of disobedience.

Mal_4:2 (a) This beautiful type represents the Lord JESUS when He shall return to this earth in power to heal all human woes, and to remove all curses from the earth.

Mat_13:6 (b) Probably this type represents trials, difficulties and opposition which keep the Word of GOD from being effective in the heart and mind. Sometimes it represents earth's light from human minds, mental arguments and reasonings which destroy the effective power of the Word of GOD in the soul. (See Mar_4:6).

Rev_12:1 (b) No doubt this represents Israel, which nation had the light of GOD, the Word of GOD, and produced the Son of GOD who is the Light of the world.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.



(prop. שֶׁמֶשׁ, shemesh; ἣλιος). In the history of the creation the sun is described as the “greater light,” in contradistinction to the moon, or “lesser light,” in conjunction with which it was to serve “for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years,” while its special office was “to rule the day” (Gen_1:14-16). The “signs” referred to were probably such extraordinary phenomena as eclipses, which were regarded as conveying premonitions of coming events (Jer_10:2; Mat_24:29, with Luk_21:25). The joint influence assigned to the sun and moon in deciding the “seasons,” both for agricultural operations and for religious festivals, and also in regulating the length' and subdivisions of the “years,” correctly describes the combination of the lunar and solar year, which prevailed, at all events, subsequently to the Mosaic period-the moon being the measurer (κατ᾿ ἐξοχήν) of the lapse of time by the subdivisions of months and weeks, while the sun was the ultimate regulator of the length of the year by means of the recurrence of the feast of. Pentecost at a fixed agricultural season, viz. when the corn became ripe.
The sun “ruled the day” alone, sharing the dominion of the skies with the moon, the brilliancy and utility of which for journeys and other purposes enhances its value in Eastern countries. It “ruled the day,” not only in reference to its powerful influences, but also as deciding the length of the day and supplying the means of calculating its progress. Sunrise and sunset are the only defined points of time, in the absence of artificial contrivances for telling the hour of the day; and, as these points are less variable in the latitude of Palestine than in many countries, they served the purpose of marking the commencement and conclusion of the working-day. Between these two points the Jews recognized three periods, viz. when the sun became hot, about 9 A.M. (1Sa_11:9, Neh_7:3); the double light, or noon (Gen_43:16; 2Sa_4:5); and “the cool of the day,” shortly before sunset (Gen_3:8). The sun also served to fix the quarters of the hemisphere-east, west, north, and south-which were represented respectively by the risings sun, the setting sun (Isa_45:6; Psa_1:1), the dark quarter (Gen_13:14; Joe_2:20), and the brilliant quarter (Deu_33:23; Job_37:17; Eze_40:24); or otherwise by their position relative to a person facing the rising sun- before, behind, on the left hand, and on the right hand (Job_23:8-9). The apparent motion of the sun is frequently referred to in terms that would imply its reality (Jos_10:13; 2Ki_20:11; Psa_19:6; Ecc_1:5; Hab_3:11). The ordinary name for the sun, shemesh, is supposed to refer to the extreme brilliancy of its rays, producing stupor or astonishment in the mind of the beholder; the poetical names חִמָּה, chammah (Job_30:28; Son_6:10; Isa_30:26), and חֶרֶס, chires (Jdg_14:18; Job_9:7) have reference to its heat, the beneficial effects of which are duly commemorated (Deu_33:14; Psa_19:6) as well as its baneful influence when in excess (Psa_121:6; Isa_49:10; Jon_4:8; Sir_43:3-4). The vigor with which the sun traverses the heavens is compared to that of a “bridegroom coming out of his chamber,” and of a “giant rejoicing to run his course” (Psa_19:5). The speed with which the beams of the rising sun dart across the sky is expressed in the term “wings” applied to them (Psa_139:9; Mal_4:2).
The worship of the sun as the most prominent and powerful agent in the kingdom of nature was widely diffused throughout the countries adjacent to Palestine. The Arabians appear to have paid direct worship to it without the intervention of any statue or symbol (Job_31:26-27; Strabo, 16. 784), and this simple style of worship was probably familiar to the ancestors of the Jews in Chaldea and Mesopotamia. In Egypt the sun was worshipped under the title of Ri or Ra, and not, as was supposed by ancient writers, under the form of Osiris (Diod. Sic. 1, 11; see Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. 4:289). The name came conspicuously forward as the title of the kings-Pharaoh, or rather Phra, meaning “the sun” (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. 4:287). The Hebrews must have been well acquainted with the idolatrous worship of the sun during the captivity in Egypt both from the contiguity of On, the chief seat of the worship of the sun as implied in the name itself (On= the Hebrew Bethshemesh, “house of the sun,” Jer_43:13), and also from the connection between Joseph and Poti-pherah (“he who belongs to Ra”), the priest of On (Gen_41:45). After their removal to Canaan, the Hebrews came in contact with various forms of idolatry which originated in the worship of the sun-such as the Baal of the Phoenicians (Movers, Phon. 1, 180), the Molech or Milcom of the Ammonites, and the Hadad of the Syrians (Pliny, 37:71). These idols were, with the exception of the last, introduced into the Hebrew commonwealth at various periods (Jdg_2:11; 1Ki_11:5); but it does not follow that the object symbolized lb them was known to the Jews themselves. If we have any notice at all of conscious sun-worship in the early stages of their history, it exists in the doubtful term חִמָּנַים, chammanim (Lev_26:30; Isa_17:8, etc.), which was itself significant of the sun, and probably described the stone pillars or statues under which the solar Baal (Baal-Haman of the Punic inscriptions, Gesenius, Thesaur. 1, 489) was worshipped at Baal-Hamon (Son_8:11) and other places.
Pure sun-worship appears to have been introduced by the Assyrians, and to have become formally established by Manasseh (2Ki_21:3; 2Ki_21:5), in contravention of the prohibitions of Moses (Deu_4:19; Deu_17:3). Whether the practice was borrowed from the Sepharvites of Samaria (2Ki_17:31), whose gods Adrammelech and Anammelech are supposed to represent the male and female sun, and whose original residence (the Heliopolis of Berosus) ‘was the chief seat of the worship of the sun in Babylonia (Rawlinson, Herod. 1, 611), or whether the kings of Judah drew their model of worship more immediately from the East, is uncertain. The dedication of chariots and horses to the sun (2Ki_23:11) was perhaps borrowed from the Persians (Herod. 1, 189; Curt. 3, 3, 11; Xenoph. Cyrop. 8:3, 24), who honored the sun under the form of Mithras (Strabo, 15:732). At the same time it should be observed that the horse was connected with the worship of the sun in other countries, as among the Massagetse (Herod. 1, 216) and the Armenians (Xenoph. Anab. 4:5, 35), both of whom used it as a sacrifice. To judge from the few notices we have on the subject in the Bible, we should conclude that the Jews derived their mode of worshipping the sun from several quarters. The practice of burning incense on the house-tops (2Ki_23:5; 2Ki_23:12; Jer_19:13; Zep_1:5) might have been borrowed from the Arabians (Strabo, 16:784), as also the simple act of adoration directed towards the rising sun (Eze_8:16; comp. Job_31:27). On the other hand, the use of the chariots and horses in the processions on festival days came, as we have observed, from Persia; and so also the custom of “putting the branch to the nose” (Eze_8:17) according to the generally received explanation which- identifies it with the Persian practice of holding in the left hand a bundle of twigs called Bersam while worshipping the sun (Strabo, 15:733; Hyde, Rel. Pers. p. 345). This, however, is very doubtful, the expression being otherwise understood of “putting the knife to the nose,” i.e. producing self-mutilation (Hitzig, On Ezekiel). An objection lies against the former view from the fact that the Persians are not said to have held the branch to the nose. The importance attached to the worship of the sun by the Jewish, kings may be inferred from the fact that the horses were stalled within the precincts of the temple (the term פִּרְוָר, parvâr, meaning not “suburb,” as in the A.V., but either a portico or an outbuilding of the Temple). They were removed thence by Josiah (2Ki_23:11). SEE SUN, WORSHIP OF. In the metaphorical language of Scripture, the sun is emblematic of the law of God (Psa_19:7), of the cheering presence of God (Psa_84:2), of the person of the Savior (Joh_1:9; Mal_4:2), and of' the glory and purity of heavenly beings (Rev_1:16; Rev_10:1; Rev_12:1).
See Meiner, Gesch. der Relig. 1, 387 sq.; Nork, Ueb. d. Sonnencultus d. alt. Volker (Heilbronn, 1840); Pococke, Spec. Hist. Arab. p. 5, 150; Jablonski, Opusc. 1, 187 sq.; Doughtsei Analect. 1, 189; Hyde, Rel. Vett. Persarum, p. 206 sq.; Eichhorn, De Sole Invicto Mithra, in the Comment. Soc. Götting. 3, 153 sq.; Creuzer, Symbol. 1, 738 sq.; 4:409 sq.; Bochart, Hieroz. 1, 141 sq.; Rosenmüller, Morgenl. 3, 249 sq.; Bose, De Josia Quadrigas Solis Removente (Lips. 1741); Pocarus, De Simulacris Solaribus Israelitarum (Jen. 1725).; Gesenius, Monumen. Phonic. 2, 349.



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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